Part 2 of a Two-Part Series
What happens when a noncustodial parent won’t cooperate? Here’s what families need to know about the CSS Profile, waiver requests, blended families, college strategy, and financial aid appeals.
In Part 1 of this series, we covered the basics of college financial aid for divorced and separated families: which parent completes the FAFSA, how the custodial parent is determined, and why the FAFSA and CSS Profile don’t always ask for the same parents’ financial information.
But as anyone who has been through a divorce knows, real life doesn’t always fit neatly into a form.
What happens when a noncustodial parent refuses to participate? What if there has been no contact for years? What happens when one or both parents remarry? And can the way you build the college list make a difference?
These are some of the most difficult questions I hear from families, and they’re important to address before financial aid applications are due.
In Part 2, we’re moving beyond the basics. I’ll explain how the noncustodial CSS Profile works, when a waiver may be appropriate, how remarriage and blended families can affect financial aid, and why divorced families may need to be especially strategic when building a college list.
The goal isn’t to make an already complicated family situation more complicated. It’s to understand the rules early enough that you still have choices.
How the CSS Profile Treats Divorced Families Differently Than the FAFSA
As we discussed in Part 1, the FAFSA generally requires financial information from the parent who provides the greater portion of the student’s financial support when divorced or separated parents do not live together. If support is exactly equal, the FAFSA uses the parent with the greater income and assets.
The CSS Profile can be a very different story.
Most colleges that use the CSS Profile require financial information from both the custodial and noncustodial households. Other CSS Profile colleges do not require a separate application from the noncustodial parent. That’s why families should never assume that every CSS Profile school handles divorced parents the same way. College Board maintains a list of participating institutions and their requirements, but I also recommend confirming the policy directly with each college.
Why ask for both households? The CSS Profile is used to determine eligibility for a college’s own institutional aid, and participating institutions may want a more complete picture of the financial resources available to the student.
Here’s the important part: a divorce agreement, custody arrangement, or agreement about who will pay for college does not necessarily determine whose financial information a college will require.
The college applies its own financial aid methodology.
Child Support and Financial Aid
Child support is another area where families can easily get confused because the FAFSA and CSS Profile may treat it differently.
The FAFSA asks families to report total child support received for the last complete calendar year. Under the current federal methodology, child support received is reported separately from federal tax information and is considered in the aid calculation as a parental asset as opposed to income. This does not mean you should add child support received to the assets you report on the FAFSA. Report it only where the FAFSA specifically asks for child support received. This treatment generally has less impact on aid eligibility for lower-income families than counting the same amount as parental income.
The CSS Profile treats child support differently. The CSS Profile calculates total child support received in the last complete calendar year as untaxed income to the custodial parent. For the noncustodial parent, if required, the CSS Profile deducts total child support paid from the income for the required tax year.
The Noncustodial CSS Profile
If a college requires financial information from the noncustodial parent, that parent completes a separate CSS Profile using their own account and financial information. College Board specifically instructs noncustodial parents to create their own account for this purpose.
This is an important point for divorced families: the two households do not sit down and complete one financial application together.
The student’s primary CSS Profile and the noncustodial parent’s CSS Profile are linked for the colleges that require both, but the noncustodial parent completes their information separately.
Families should also pay close attention to deadlines. A student’s CSS Profile isn’t necessarily complete for institutional-aid purposes simply because the custodial household has submitted its portion. If a college requires the noncustodial parent’s CSS Profile, that requirement needs to be addressed as well.
This is not something you want to discover three days before a priority financial aid deadline. Continued…
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College Financial Aid for Divorced or Separated Parents: Complex Situations